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The O'Shaid
Points to Cover: * Technology ** Psionics *** All Shaid are psionic by nature. Some are stronger and develop into psions. *** Much of their technology relies on harnessing lay lines, built in wiring of the Great Machine, the usage of this reduces much of the backlash risks associated with using magic. *** Ships are constructed of wood, jewels and gold filament. This is as much a show of opulance as it is part of their ship. The gems act as lodestones and the gold as wiring for the ships to pass along lay lines with very little effort from the pilot. **** Ships can travel beyond the lay lines but requires far more effort from the pilot. ***** Scout ships looking to construct lay lines require multiple pilots working nearly non-stop for if they lose concentration the ship will fall from the sky. * Biology ** All Shaid are Bioluminescent. This is a trait carried from their home world which lacks a sun. Their cities are built on the marshy skin that coats an entire ocean. ** Blood is Chlorocruorin based. It is normally a pale green within the body (not typically visible). Turns darker green when oxygenated and when heavily oxygenated (when the O'shaid is hyperventilating due to exertion it turns red which becomes distinctly visible as their blood vessels expand. *** Lungs are underdeveloped and not as efficient meaning almost all O'Shaid unless actively trying to be stealthy are heavy mouth breathers. ** Shaid do not sleep as normal races do, more akin to sharks and dolphins were parts of their brain shut down at different times. This does not mean they do not sleep, or are immune to sleep. The Shaid is able to breath, and move somewhat but it is largely instinctive or innate responses. Skilled Shaid are able to rely on muscle memory to 'take 5' on various craft checks. ** The Shaid are aquatic for the first part of their life cycle, they are birthed en-masse in large nursuries. *** They do not have parents, all males and females of appropriate age gather together and breed underwater at one of these nurseries. **** This is also part of their molting process. The old bodies are discarded and new younger forms are regained. **** The Eel-Maidens devour those who do not survive the orgy and the discarded old flesh. **** During the molting process the O'Shaid may develop into a different caste. *** The eggs are divided into clutches and they are all raised together. *** The young are raised by Eel-Maidens. A gender-less subspecies of the Shaid. The Eel-Maidens are loving care takers, caring for many of the young as mothers would. Any born with defects are devoured by them. **** Once a year a tithe of young is taken by the Eel-Maidens. The children follow the eel maiden's siren song down into the deep. They never return. **** The children are effectively immortal and may stay at the creche for as long as they wish, cared for by the eel-maidens. ***** Most children eventually realize that they will be taken by the tithe as well and flee. ***** They must breach the surface and breath in air to trigger their first molting. ***** Their lungs are deflated and never used until they breath in air for the first time. Dragging their bodies out of the water they under go a rapid and painful change as their lungs inflate and their secondary circulatory system forcefully starts. ****** Most describe it as the single most painful experience of their lives, life fire pouring through their body. Some do not survive, choking to death on their screams. ****** During this traumatic experience the O'Shaid typically have an out of body experience and develop their psionic abilities for the first time. ***** Once they have proven that they can survive the air others come to them. ***** They are typically taken in by other more experiences Shaid who are looking for apprentices. It is the first of many debts in their long immortal society. ** Caste based physiology *** When a O'Shaid first molts it develops the markings of its caste. **** Seekers: ***** Scouts and explorers **** The Will: ***** The Leadership * Ecology ** The world of the Shaid is known as O'a. Which is where the name O'Shaid come from. *** The world is a gigantic body of water black as the evernight covered in a skin of marshy growth strong enough to support stone buildings without buckling. **** Marsh world does suffer from frequent earth quakes in the form of waves flowing through the marsh. Not dangerous for many, but large structures are typically flexible to account for that. *** Their world despite being without sun is a rainbow of colors. Most plants and animals have some manner of bioluminescence. **** * Psychology: ** For a Shaid, life is cruel. Their childhood was a cruel lie, why should life be any different. ** They epitomize survival of the fittest. Power is there to be taken, not given. ** They are both renowned and reviled for their duplicitous nature. A Shaid can turn any loss into a victory, and working with one is incredibly profitable until you are no longer needed. * Mythology ** Much of Shaid mythology revolves around the hidden depths of the ocean they call home. They only worship one god as opposed to the patheons that others worship. ** It is known by many names, for it is more an emotion or primal fear than any physical being. *** He Who Dwells *** The Darkness that Lurks *** It that Watches **** It is that feeling when you cannot see the bottom of the water. When something brushes past your leg. The fear in the deep. * Culture: ** Taboos: *** Turning red from exertion is seen as a gross breach of decorum. **** Fighting is for lessers. O'Shaid should never do their own work. *** Victorian mindset of keeping appearances at all times. * Diplomacy: ** Allies ** Enemies: ** Nature: Duplicitous to the extreme, loyal only to their kingdom. * History *